Vlogging: Video Marketing For Musicians, Artists & Producers

Alright, I’ve gone into great detail about vlogging, video equipment and how to create different types of videos. Now, It’s time to show you how I go about marketing, generating traffic and finding placement opportunities and with my videos And, more importantly, how you can do the same with your own diy videos. Before I get into details I want you to understand that my techniques don’t equate to immediate success. These techniques will yield results for some faster than others. Let’s get into it shall we? It’s All About The Trends! That’s how I get the bulk of my work. If people are talking about it, I’m finding a way to profit from it. I rely on social media to feed me these leads and then I capitalize on them using the methods outlined in this post. Talking Head Videos What I look for are interesting topics to talk about. I pick things I feel will trend, are trending or have the ability generate heavy discussion. Let’s take this for an example Stitches Brick In Yo Face Riding Trends httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7f6WTDZ0rE I created this video because I knew it would get people talking and there was already a market for his sound. How did I know this? Easy, look at the guy for crying out loud. He has all the right ingredients for trolls and business. His appearance Where he’s from (Florida) Glorifies selling Drugs Very Confident Went Viral I wanted to connect with three specific types of people with this video. The trolls Business savvy individuals Potential Clients How did this pan out? Trolls: They did what they do best … Trash talk. Good comments/bad comments, doesn’t matter, it’s still engagement. Business Savvy People: Commented and engaged with the message in the video even if they didn’t agree with the advice. Potential Clients: Those who work in the industry offered me production gigs (some did). Why Did This Work? Because of how I positioned myself. The video did more than inform people about trends and why they are important. It basically yelled “I’m more than willing to knock off songs and look I’m already contracted to do so” When a new artist surfaces everyones all over social media trying to figure out as much as they can about them. Including those with the power to place music within tv/film. My video ranked in the top 5 for “Brick In Yo Face” for about a week or two. In that time, there were a lot of eyes on my video, feedback and more importantly emails from professionals within my industry. Those emails turned in placement opportunities. Some were right up my alley others weren’t. The ones that were requested similar sounding instrumentals. Those that weren’t required a vocalist. So I outsourced those. Then, as with anything else, you get the “for free” requests, those didn’t work for me either so I passed on them. Instagram Trends #SavemyIG2014 Does everyone remember this hashtag? It was very popular in March 2014. Someone spread a rumor stating that Instagram would trash any accounts that didn’t retweet the graphic message. If you’re posting #savemyIG2014 I am going to assume you’re genuinely stupid. — SassyCountryQueen (@CountryQueen_51) March 6, 2014 All those dumbass people on Instagram posting #SaveMyIG2014 << pic.twitter.com/IXQvbMWwvi — Christian. (@OhhThatTwin) March 6, 2014 Hey everybody tweeting...

I’m going to show you how to edit VideoSongs (music videos) and talking head videos. I’ve decided to combine them in the same post because my process is the same. The plan is to show you this process in different stages. We’ll start off with the simple edits and then move on to the more complex edits as musicians finish uploading their videos to DropBox & WeTransfer. My video editing program of choice is Screenflow because it’s simple to use. If you’re on a Mac and you don’t have screenflow you can use iMovie. If you’re on a Windows computer use Windows Movie Maker. You could even use your DAW if it supports video. Here are the video editing features we’ll be focusing on for our simple edit. Cut & Splice: This operates the exact same way it would if you were cutting and slicing audio in a DAW. Noise Reduction: There is noise reduction for video, but this is audio noise reduction. What this does is reduce the amount of background noise captured in your audio signal. If your video editor doesn’t have this feature then use something like Audacity. Simple Video Editing It’s called simple video editing because we aren’t going to do much to the video. At most we’re going to clean up a couple of goofy mistakes and get rid of the little unwanted noise. Sounds simple right? This literally takes less than five minutes of work depending on how long the video is. Step 1: Import Your Video Into The Editor Hopefully you were following the directions outlined in the last post where I told you to export all of your media into a folder. Now we’re going to take all that media and dump it into our editor. I snagged this video just for a quick demonstration of what you can do with video where the audio was recorded with the onboard camera. You can generally tell if it’s onboard sound because the audio and video are laced together. It should look like this once everything is imported. Step 2: Scrub Through Your VideoSong What we’re looking for here are sections we want to keep and sections we want to delete. Use your slicing tool to isolate sections you don’t want and delete them. Once you’re done it should look similar to the screen capture above. Step 3: Clean Up The Audio In this video it sounds like Sarah is using her cameras stock microphone. Or she could just have a really noisy environment. Either way, I’ll shall you how to clean it up a bit. Pay attention the right side of the capture where it says “remove background noise” you want to adjust the slider underneath to get the desired sound or good balance between noise removal and comb filtering. Too much removal will give your sound a canny twang like sound. Side note: Most people wont notice a little bit of noise especially if they aren’t listening via headphones, buds or treated environments. Something to keep in mind while you’re editing. Step 4: Export & Upload Your Video That’s as simple as it gets right there. If you don’t care much for fancy intros then it really doesn’t get any simpler than this. This type of edit takes about 3, maybe 5 minutes....

Screen casting is the easiest way to create videos. There’s no bright lights, no fear of being in front of the camera and you can create them anywhere. And the equipment needed is inexpensive and very easy to operate. What Is Screencasting? Screen casting is the act of recording your computer’s screen and sharing the recording with others. Why Should I Screencast? It allows you to explain things in a more detailed and precise manner. Where audio and text fall short video makes up for. Have you ever been in a situation where you’re explaining something to someone and you say “it’s just… you have to see it” or “once I show you, you’ll understand”? I don’t know about you, but I’ve been in that situation many times, more than I’d like to admit. Screen casting allows the viewer to see exactly what you’re seeing. Almost as if they were in the same room with you. Marketing 1: It allows you connect with and build fans in a simple manner. People like to consume info through video as we’re becoming more visual. Why do you think YouTube is so huge? Marketing 2: It’s an easy way to display your music with visuals, both animated and stills. Think of lyric and picture videos. Good B-roll: Screen casts serve as good B roll as long as it relates to your video. Instagram: IG allows 15 seconds of video. That’s enough to hook a client a get them interested in you. Working With Engineers: Let’s say an engineer sends you a rough mix, and you don’t like certain parts. Rather than saying, “I don’t like that thingie” you should make a recording and show then EXACTLY what you’re talking about. Technical Support: Whether from your website or music software same as working with an engineer, it’s so much easier to show the problem with a video. Instructional Videos: Probably the best use for screen casting. Let’s say you want teach people how to mix using BitWig Studio. This would be the perfect way to do that. Working With Clients: Just like video is a good way to point out flaws, it’s also a great way to give clients a visual of how projects are coming. Product Reviews: Works best with software applications because you can cycle through options, features and sounds etc. Lots of music creators have grown huge followings because help others and share their knowledge via screen casting. Tools You Need For Screencasting Equipment NeededStrength/Tips Strengths: Easy to use. Superb video quality, built in video editor, great noise reduction tools Tip Always record fullscreen then crop down to designed size Strengths: Supports two connections; usb and xlr. Cheap price, good quality and it rejects background noise Tip Use with wind guard to pop filter to reduce s' and plosives How To Create Screencasting Video It doesn’t get any easier than this, pay close attention. Plan Your Screen Cast: Think about what you want to talk about. Outline it with a MindMap. I like to use an application called Free Mind. The more you plan, the less “ums” and mistakes you’ll make. Screen Cast Size: Think about how you want to deliver your screen cast. Will it be on youtube, your site or another platform? Record the cast in...

Welcome to Part 3 of the Vlogging For Musicians Series. In this post I’m going to show you how to shoot a simple videosong using your gear. What is a video song? According to the Urban Dictionary An artistic visual and auditory medium with 2 rules: 1. What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice). 2. If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds). To me, it’s just another type of music video. There’s music and there’s video – Music + Video = Music Video. Some videosongs are pretty elaborate utilizing multiple cameras, sliders and jibs, but others are quite simple yet effective and that’s what we’ll focus on. Step 1: Figure Out What You Want To Record As a person who makes music it’s your goal to promote and expose people to your unique sound and song writing. The problem occurs when your sound gains no traction with the listeners. As a result, you get frustrated, lose confidence, and you invest in shady marketing tactics (spamming). Some music creators will fall for the okie doke “get 5,000 YouTube views for $90″ scheme. Horrible method for building a fanbase. Most of the time the views are fake. Any company who claims to deliver targeted views would have to conduct research for each client. If they actually did the work, they wouldn’t charge $90, trust me. In the end, the musician comes to the conclusion that social media doesn’t work, it’s not for them or they have to spend more to get their music to the right ears. My Advice: Don’t Shoot For Originality Start off with a series of cover songs (popular hits) then slowly introduce your own songs. Why 1: First surge of traffic. Why 2: Get’s people listening and familiar with your voice and style. Why 3: It’s a quick way to find fans Why 4: Builds a little anticipation for your original music Why 5: Allows you to test your music in front of a following If cover songs aren’t for you, that’s okay, use your own material. Just know that it could take longer to find fans. Most people will listen to something they’ve heard before vs something brand new. Food for thought. Step 2: Decide How You Want To Shoot Your Videos Do you want your performance to be live or pre recorded? What’s the difference? Live: Not as in broadcasting, but in the performance itself. You’re singing live and capturing the performance with your camera. Pre recorded: Everything was recorded before hand, you’re now singing along and making it look good for the camera. There’s no right or wrong, do whatever you feel most comfortable with. Step 3: Shooting Your Video All your gear is setup; lighting, audio, video camera… everything is in place. Your staging is good, the way you look in the environment is good. Now, it’s time to record. Follow These Tips For Shooting Better Videos Check Your ISO: Make sure you’re using the lowest ISO possible. A higher ISO allows more light to hit the camera’s sensor, but it also introduces more noise into the video footage. As stated before, the more light you have, the better. Framing: Make sure there is a decent amount of headroom in the shot and experiment with...

In this post we’re going to go over how to setup your vlogging equipment as it will be the basis for creating videosongs, talking head videos etc. Getting this right the first time will make shooting easier later down the line. If you know about video equipment, setups and staging please bare with me, there are others that don’t and I want to cover all basis. This post was created more so with the DSLR camera in mind, there will be a more detailed version for smartphone users posted in the near future. Staging: Find A Good Place To Shoot Your Video Pick an area you feel comfortable in. Avoid plain backgrounds, they are boring and any flaw your video has will stick out like a sore thumb. A few places I would suggest are your budget recording studio, the living room, kitchen or family area. Spaces with simple (not plain) backgrounds work well to. Here’s a good example You can shoot wherever you like, those are just my suggestions. Make sure there is nothing in the background that shouldn’t be there. A good practice is viewing your stage through the lens of your camera. How it looks through the camera is how your audience will see it as well. If you don’t care how your environment looks, that’s fine to. Some people will give you crap for having a messy room or living condition, others will accept you for you → those are the people you want to focus on. People cling on and relate to familiarity – something to think about. How To Position Your Video Lights After you find a good recording location, shed some light on it. Things tend to look a little different once lit, so experiment a little. The most common lighting setups are the 2 point and 3 point lighting. 2 Point Lighting: This is what I use for my videos. One light is the key light, which emits the most light, and the 2nd is the fill light and is used to smoothen out any shadows created by your key light. 3 Point Lighting: involves 3 lights → key/fill light and one to separate you from the background called a backlight. The backlight is positioned on your hairline (top of your head) or the background of your recording area. It also adds a little dimension to the video. Here are examples of both These are typical lighting positions, sometimes depending on the room, you can bounce the light off the ceiling and walls and it will work just fine. This is why it’s important to test otherwise you won’t know what works best for you. If you need lighting kit solutions, head over to vlogging equipment. Your Audio Setup: Where To Place Your Mic(s) You can skip this section if you know about mics and how to set them up. If you don’t have a clue, don’t sweat it, I’ll give you a basic rundown. Studio mics: go in front and pointed toward you or the audio source. In a video setting it’s ok to have these in frame. Lapel mics: are clipped onto the talent, yes…. you! You can choose to hide or leave them in plain sight. I like to clip mine on my shirt similar how it’s done in this picture. Shotgun mics:...

When musicians (and artists) think of creating videos, they think of vlogging. When they think of vlogging, they picture videos outlining their day to day. What I had for breakfast, and look at the new *blank* I just purchased. Vlogging is powerful when used correctly. In this post series, I’m going to show you how to leverage video to gain more fans, followers, business connections and client I’ll walk you through creating talking head videos, video songs/cover songs, screen captures as well as the editing process. This is one fun way I find new connections and projects. Let’s get into it. In this post I’m going to go over the equipment you’ll need to start vlogging (video marketing). Warning: These are affiliate links, and I will be paid if you purchase anything through them. Your Vlogging Equipment! In order to create good video, you’ll need the following: Camera, stabilization, editing software, good light, good audio and a little patience. Creating video can be a little frustrating, but we’ll get through that. Here’s A List Of Good Video Cameras For YouTube Vlogging I broke this down into 3 types; webcams, handheld cams (pocket) and dslr. I left out camcorders because I have no experience with them. Webcams: I don’t think it get’s any cheaper than this. Most laptops and computer monitors come with a webcam built in. The quality is usable, but often limiting especially if you plan on doing a lot of moving. If you don’t have a webcam, keep your eye on the Logitech C920. It records in 1080p and is generally under $70, sometimes $50 Pocket Cameras: Sometimes called “fixed focus cameras” which are small enough to fit on your person -> your pocket. Cameras that fall into this category are flip styled, like the Flip HD and VadoHD (2nd/3rd gen). They are called “flip styled” because they have USB connector that “flips” out for transferring video to your computer for editing. These use to be the “go to” vlogging cameras a few years ago. They still work great, but if you have a smartphone, you’re in business. The quality is better, and you have dslr like feature control over the smartphone’s camera. For example: Iso, aperture, focus/exposure lock, tap focus etc. Not to mention, smartphones are convenient, we carry them everywhere! Although pocket cams are capable of good video quality, they perform poorly in lowlight and the onboard audio sucks. So good lighting and an external audio source are a must. One more thing. Most pocket cams have onboard memory. Some allow you to expand this memory via SD cards and Micro SD cards. DSLR Cameras: Huge step up from the pocket cameras as they offer better quality and more control over your cameras features; Iso, aperture, light metering, fps and you can add on different lenses.. Models I suggest getting Canon Rebel T3i Canon Rebel T4i Canon Rebel T5i Sorry for not mentioning any Nikon models. I don’t suggest equipment/software I’ve never used. I’m sure they are just as good if not better. Maybe someone can come in and mention some alternative models from other brands. The downside of using a dslr is dealing with huge file sizes, they aren’t as convenient and they’re a bit complicated. Especially for someone who just wants to record quickly...